Padmavathi Sundaram1,2, William M. Wells2,
Robert V. Mulkern1, Ellen J. Bubrick3, Edward Barry
Bromfield3, Mirjam Mnch4, Darren B. Orbach1,2
1Radiology, Children's Hospital,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 2Radiology,
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United
States; 3Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical
School, Boston, MA, United States; 4Sleep Medicine, Brigham and
Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
We
attempt to visualize an MR signal directly linked to neuronal activity. We
hypothesized that reliable detection of an MR signal directly linked to
neuronal activity in vivo, would be most likely under the following
conditions: (i) fast gradient echo EPI, (ii) a cohort of epilepsy subjects,
and (iii) concurrent EEG. Our subjects frequently experience high amplitude
cortical electromagnetic discharges called interictal discharges. We found
that these interictal spikes in the EEG of our subjects induced easily
detectable MR signal changes. We refer to our technique as Encephalographic
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (efMRI).
Keywords